Howard, Harden give Rockets a pair of All-Stars

As much as the Rockets were certain they had paired inside-out stars and celebrated that success on the July day Dwight Howard joined forces with James Harden, on Thursday it became official.

Howard and Harden were named to the NBA’s Western Conference All-Star team. Howard will be an All-Star for the eighth time, his second as a reserve, and Harden is going for the second consecutive season since joining the Rockets.

With Kobe Bryant, who was selected a starter last week in fan voting, injured and out of the game, Harden could make his first All-Star start as the only shooting guard among the Western Conference reserves. Incoming commissioner Adam Silver will name a replacement to the roster, but Harden’s former Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks will choose the starter to replace Bryant on Feb. 16 in New Orleans.

The Rockets joined the Trail Blazers, Clippers, Pacers and Heat as teams with multiple All-Stars, representing five of the top seven records in the NBA.

Pivotal selections

Howard, Chicago’s Joakim Noah and Indiana’s Roy Hibbert were the only centers named to the All-Star teams a week after no centers were picked in the fan voting from ballots that did not designate centers separately from other frontcourt players.

For Howard, the selection after he was passed by Kevin Love in the final two weeks of voting for the starters could be viewed as affirmation of his return to the league’s elite. Though Howard was voted a starter last season, his selection by Western Conference coaches could be considered more of a statement about his play in his first season with the Rockets than the fans’ vote in his lone season with the Lakers.

Howard has averaged 18.1 points and 12.5 rebounds (ranking fourth) per game. His 57.1 percent shooting is fifth best. With Howard anchoring the Rockets’ defense, they are fifth in opponents’ field-goal percentage, 10th in points allowed per possession, and sixth in point differential per possession.

Harden is seventh in the NBA in scoring, averaging 23.7 points per game to go along with 5.5 assists and 4.9 rebounds.

The players who were excluded might have been as noteworthy as those who were selected, especially with Silver’s first high-profile decision likely to be the announcement of any injury replacements.

Value put on winning

Forwards Tim Duncan, with 14 appearances, and Anthony Davis, point guards Goran Dragic and Mike Conley and blossoming center DeMarcus Cousins were excluded but surely considered. Silver could choose the Pelicans’ Davis to play on his home court, despite Davis’ playing a different position than Bryant, or add another guard. Despite the exclusion of Duncan, Western Conference coaches seemed to consider team success a priority, with the teams represented by the All-Star reserves having an average of 31.4 wins and none with fewer than Dallas’ 26 wins.

That did not hold true in the East, where Indiana’s Lance Stephenson and Toronto’s Kyle Lowry could not earn All-Star selections ahead of Washington’s Wall and Brooklyn’s Johnson. Orlando’s Arron Afflalo, Detroit’s Andre Drummond and Charlotte’s Al Jefferson, all playing for losing teams, also were likely to have been heavily considered but fell short.

The selection of the Rockets’ tandem, however, came as no surprise, having seemed certain since Howard signed on six months ago.